"Charlotte!"
"Liz!"
"Ted?"
"Mom?"
"Daisy!" I shouted, trying to lighten the mood. Everyone turned to face me in confusion. I laughed nervously. "What? I thought we were just introducing ourselves...."
Ted turned back to face Dad and the infamous Liz. "Mom? What are you doing here?"
Dad looked at Ted incredulously. "He's your son?"
I turned to Dad. "You've never met Ted before!" I shouted, flustered. Will placed his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to cool me off. It wasn't working.
Meanwhile, Charlotte looked at Granddad in confusion. "Our grandchildren know each other?"
Now it was my turn for confrontations. "My grandfather is dating your grandmother?" I asked Jace. Jace shrugged. "To be fair, I only found out about her being in a relationship this morning."
Ava threw Shay a sideways glance and they both burst out laughing. "Small world, huh?"
The laughter soon died out when they realized not everyone was so happy about the situation we'd found ourselves in.
"How did this happen?" Ted was the only one who didn't find this amusing. He glared at his mother and my father. I gulped. I was expecting a happy get-together. A happy, civilized, fun-filled get-together.
Liz had the courtesy to look embarrassed. Or should I say Mrs. Reed. "I met him at the grocery store,"she started, and Ted cut her off with a fit of laughter.
"Dad died a year ago and now you're going out with men you meet in grocery stores?" he laughed some more. I could feel my blood boiling.
"Don't you dare talk about my father that way,"I said, stepping in front of Dad. Ava covered the distance between us, placing her arm around Ted's shoulders. "Calm down,"she whispered into his ear. He ignored her.
Granddad, Charlotte, Will and Shay slowly made their way to the front porch in order to give us some privacy. Clearly their way of stating 'small world' was much more pleasant than ours.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ted asked in a small voice, once everyone else had gone. Ava, seeing that the situation was heating up, followed after the others into the garden. I tried to swallow my anger and eyed mother and son, hoping they could resolve their conflict so that we could continue with the evening in peace. But then it occurred to me.
"You can't possibly continue seeing each other now!" I shouted, and placed my hands over my mouth as soon as the words flew out. I knew that was the wrong thing to say, but I couldn't help it. It was a fact- they just couldn't continue doing this because there wouldn't be a definite happy ending. It's not like we could ever be a family. It wasn't what we were used to.
"Daisy, calm down. We'll talk about this,"Dad said in an even tone.
"Yes, just like the time you talked about having a son named Ted who went to the same school as his daughter Daisy,"Ted muttered angrily, addressing his mother. She sighed in frustration.
"Ted, I didn't know you knew Daisy. I was going to introduce you all next week at our house. I was going to call them over for dinner."
"If this happened any later it would've been a hundred times worse and you know it, Mom,"Ted grumbled. I almost wanted to laugh at how crazy this conversation was. How could my dad possibly fall for my best friend's boyfriend's mother?
What if they got married and Thea and Ted became my step-siblings? Then Ava and Ted's love story would be as cliche as any other. They could write a book and title it 'Falling for the best friend's brother who isn't really her brother, but actually her stepbrother whom she became related to after her dad and his mom hit it off in a grocery store.'
How freaking romantic.
"Mom, the least you could've done was tell me you were in a relationship. That would've softened the blow a fair amount,"Ted said softly. I wanted to hug him. I knew how he felt. I felt that way at the back of my mind every time I saw my dad talking to Liz on the phone, or when he said he was going to the grocery store to run some errands even though we were well stocked up on everything we needed, and didn't need. Hell, I even felt that way when I saw Granddad video calling Charlotte and the moment he told me she was the one.
If that was so, what about the one you first fell in love with? Is she not the one anymore?
I took Ted's hand and slowly dragged him out of the room and into the kitchen.
"Daisy, we need to stop this,"he started, and I put my finger up to silence him.
"No,"I whispered. He looked like he wanted to argue with me, but nodded his head. I took that as a sign that he was coming to terms with fate.
"Look, I know that neither of us wants this to happen. We're not used to our parents replacing their old loved ones." I paused, and took a deep breath. "But I think it's time we both realized that this isn't our decision to make. Your mother handled your father's death the worst. I know it and so do you."
I knew he wanted to deny it. I knew he was mustering up all the strength inside of him to agree with me, so finally he did.
" Even 'handled' doesn't seem an adequate word,"I added as an afterthought. "My point is, we don't choose who we get to love. We don't choose when we get over past loves. But sometimes the only way to find happiness is to follow your heart."
Ted made a face and I punched his arm, which caused him to laugh. "Since when did you start having problems with my cheesiness?" I asked him, pretending to be offended.
Ted sighed and smiled. "Since the day I started dating Ava."
My expression turned serious. "Let your mom be happy. I bet you haven't seen her in such high spirits since your dad died. I don't know about my dad, since I've never seen him with my mom, but one thing I can safely say is that never in my whole life have I seen him happier. Maybe he just needed somebody to love, to remind himself of how it felt. Maybe this won't last forever. But so long as it does, I'm rooting for it to last."
Ted smiled and hugged me tight. "I really hope you don't become my step-sister. I can't imagine having to deal with your sappiness all day and every day."
And that was my way of knowing that he loved me, and that he was okay. Everything had turned around for the better.